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Producers gather to discuss water fights

Colorado ag organizations hold water workshop in Brush

By Stephanie Alderton

Times Staff Writer

Posted:
07/15/2016 07:02:07 AM MDT

Updated:
07/15/2016 09:37:41 AM MDT

MaryLou Smith, of the Colorado Water Institute, helped moderate a question and answer session after the speakers at the water workshop on Wednesday. The workshop brought together ag producers, city officials and other interested parties from all over the state to discuss the Colorado Water Plan. (Stephanie Alderton / Fort Morgan Times)

Colorado Ag Water Alliance workshop

This is the first article outlining the water issues producers discussed during the Colorado Ag Water Alliance workshop in Brush on Wednesday. To find out more about CAWA and the Colorado Water Plan, go to coagwater.colostate.edu.

Dozens of agriculture producers gathered at the Brush Fairgrounds Wednesday morning to discuss the future of farmers' water rights under the Colorado Water Plan.

The Colorado Ag Water Alliance, along with the Colorado Cattlemen's Association and the Colorado Water Institute, hosted a three-hour workshop for producers to help explain the new Water Plan's application to agriculture. Speakers with various roles in water and agriculture talked about the new state plan's emphasis on alternative transfer methods (ATMs) to conserve water, how the plan will be implemented in the South Platte Basin in particular and how farmers can increase water efficiency. People came from all over the state to hear and discuss details in the plan.

"A good Colorado plan needs a good South Platte plan," Joe Frank, of the South Platte Basin Roundtable, said. "Nine out of the top 10 ag producing counties are in this basin."

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During his talk, the first of the day, he explained that the area has an increasing water supply gap as the population grows, which the Water Plan seeks to address. Frank's group is in charge of implementing the plan in South Platte by coming up with a balanced, pragmatic program for farmers that is consistent with Colorado law. He said that program will focus on maximizing the use of existing water, encouraging farmers and other organizations to use ATMs in order to share water more effectively and promoting multi-purpose water storage projects, among other things.

Mike Applegate, of the Northern Water Board, talked about the status of current storage projects all over the state, while MaryLou Smith of Colorado State University gave a list of reasons why producers should want to use their water differently in an effort to conserve more. Phil Brink, of the CCA, reported the results of a survey on farmers' opinions of ag water leasing, while Dick Wolfe, an engineer with the Colorado Division of Water Resources, explained the problems with the "use it or lose it" mentality farmers tend to have toward their water rights. John Schweizer, a producer from the Arkansas Basin, talked about the success of the Super Ditch near his hometown, an ATM project that recently started seeing results. After a final panel made up of people involved in various ATM projects, including Morgan County dairy farmer Chris Kraft, the audience spent more than an hour trading questions and comments with the speakers.

The purpose of the workshop, according to a CAWA press release put out beforehand, was to bring people together to discuss the "opportunities and barriers" the Water Plan presents. The speakers in the second half of the day presented many opportunities in the form of ATMs and other projects. For example, Schweizer said the Super Ditch, though it's taken many years to be completed, has the potential to help many farmers conserve water without new legislation or complicated water rights battles.

"We've had a lot of people say this wouldn't work," he said. "We're starting to prove them wrong...I see nothing but a glorious future for this project."

But it was clear that many people at the workshop saw many remaining obstacles to water efficiency. During the question and answer session at the end, several people pointed out that, while ATMs can make it easier for farmers and other organizations to share water, they can't solve the problem of water shortages by themselves.

"We are concerned that the state Water Plan talks so much about these ATMs, and a lot of policy makers around the state are counting on them," Smith said while moderating the discussion. "Part of what we want to do is get the message of what you guys are saying back to some of those policy makers."

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